TAI's Thermal Strap News & Blog

In a year of records and firsts, I am happy to announce yet another from the TAI team: we have just completed—and now offer the industry's first—gold-plated, swaged OFHC copper foil thermal strap (CuFS).  The large prototype unit (pictured below), was manufactured by TAI for an R&D program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Illinois.

The TAI team is thrilled to announce we have completed a development program for NASA, which focused on providing a passive cooling solution with the lowest allowable stiffness requirement ever applied to a thermal strap/flexible thermal link, in NASA's history.

TAI is now happy to offer optional Al 6061 end fittings for all of our custom and standard model Copper Thermal Strap (CuTS®) products.  This new customization offering is in response to customer demand, and a thermal strap program completed earlier this month.

Following up on our blog from last week, TAI is now shipping out the EnMAP copper thermal straps, star tracker adapter fittings, and various extension and evaporator plates to OHB and the DLR.  This was a terrific program to work on, with extensive spaceflight qualification requirements. 

TAI is shipping out our first set of custom Cryocooler Series (CS) Copper Thermal Straps (CuTS®) designed for an Ametek SunPower CryoTel GT cryocooler.  The cryocooler is cooling a new thermal vacuum chamber being designed and installed at NASA JPL.

TAI is proud to announce we have concluded testing on the copper thermal straps, adapter rings and evaporator plates being delivered to OHB for the DLR's EnMAP mission.  This set of custom strap assemblies was designed by our team to cool the three star tracker systems mounted on EnMAP, and is our second delivery to the program (in 2015, TAI provided Kayser-Threde with prototype and spaceflight model (FM) Graphite Fiber Thermal Straps for another optical component on the craft).

TAI is shipping out another order to Janis Research Company today.  These Stage 1 Cryocooler Thermal Straps (pictured above), along with another set of smaller straps for the 2nd Stage (not pictured), and a batch of custom cryocooler thermal straps (pictured below), are yet another example of our high quality, and design & fabrication capabilities, and the great work our Design and Manufacturing Teams are doing everyday.  

I am proud to announce the release of the 2018 X-Series™ Catalog! Our latest catalog features the X-Series™ standard line; straps made with your choice of Pyrolytic Graphite Sheet (PGS), or our high conductance Graphene Foils (our PGL™ and GTL™ product lines).  The X-Series™ is the world's only standard model thermal strap product line made with graphite and graphene sheets/foils, and the carbon based sheets used offer the highest material thermal conductivity in the industry. X-Series™ Thermal Links / Straps are available in 6 standard models, with 2 semi-customizable end fitting types (in addition to our free bolt pattern and sheet length customization).

TAI is proud to be a supplier to JHU and NASA's Psyche Asteroid Mission. The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, one of the building blocks of our solar system.  

I am happy to announce the release of our X-Series™ Thermal Straps; the World's first and only standard product line available with either Pyrolytic Graphite Sheet (PGS), or TAI's Graphene Foil (TAI's GTL™ and PGL™ products).  The X-Series™ is comprised of 6 standard models with multiple end fitting options to choose from at no additional cost.  As with our other standard model straps/links, flexible portion/sheet length and bolt pattern customization is available and free of charge (in nearly all cases), and additional (limited) end fitting customization is also available.